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Traffic Noise And Sexual Selection: Studies Of Anthropogenic Impact On Bird Songs And Undergraduate Student Reasoning Of Evolutionary Mechanisms, Sarah Spier

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Humans have transformed much of the natural landscape and are continuing to do so at an accelerated rate, compromising natural areas that serve as important habitat for many species. Roads impact much of the environment as they fragment habitat and introduce traffic noise into the acoustic environment, deferentially affecting wildlife in roadside habitat. I explored how traffic noise affects the detection of birds based on whether their vocalizations were masked by traffic noise. Masked species detection was not affected by an increase in traffic noise amplitude, while there was a negative effect of traffic noise amplitude on unmasked species detection, …

Effect Of Beaver On Brook Trout Habitat In North Shore, Lake Superior Streams, Kathryn Renik

Biology Graduate Theses

In Minnesota, North American Beavers Castor canadensis (hereafter Beaver) are considered to have an overall negative affect on native Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis. Brook Trout provide a valued and productive sport fishery to the North Shore streams of Lake Superior and since revival of the Beaver population from past trapping and timber harvest, a reexamination of the complex ecological relationship where the two taxa interact is imperative. Suitable Brook Trout habitat is characterized by cold, spring- fed water with silt-free rocky substrate and abundant cover, all of which Beaver may directly, or indirectly, affect. Data collection occurred on 79 (200 …

2018 (30th) Report Of The Nou Records Committee, Mark A. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

2018 Additions/Deletions to the "Official List of the Birds of Nebraska”: There was one new species added in 2018. Fulvous Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) Accidental - Class 1-P. With this addition, the “Official List of the Birds of Nebraska” stands at 463 species.

2018 Changes in Frequency of Occurrence

Changes Involving Nebraska Species Due to Taxonomic Revisions

NOURC Accepted Records (Received in 2018)

NOURC Unaccepted Records (Received in 2018)

Lotka-Volteraimpulsive Model Control Or How Not To Fish, Vladyslav Bivziuk

International Programs

Human intervention in nature often destroys the equilibrium that has been established in it. It is very important to find controls that would not destroy the stability of the natural equilibrium in the ecosystem. The impulsive systems theory allows us to investigate such effects on a biological system with a simpler example that do not destroy its equilibrium.

Nesting Success Of Dickcissel (Spiza Americana) And Non-Breeding Grassland Bird Use Of Northwest Arkansas’ Remnant And Restored Tallgrass Prairies, Alyssa L. Derubeis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dwindling populations of North American grassland birds are linked to habitat loss. Tallgrass prairie only covers 3% of its pre-settlement-era range. Small-scale restoration projects attempt to increase acreage for prairie avifauna, and while some breeding grassland species are present at these sites, nesting success and non-breeding use are still largely unknown. Both life history aspects are required for effective grassland bird conservation. My first objective was to access nest success of the Dickcissel (Spiza americana) at two remnant and two restored tallgrass prairies in Northwest Arkansas. From May-August 2017 and 2018, I found 114 nests that I monitored to determine …

The Association Between Dietary Niche Variation In Rodents And Climate Change Across The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Hannah K. Vermeer

Masters Theses

Mammalian teeth play a crucial role in food acquisition and breakdown and are therefore closely tied to dietary niche. This study reconstructed the diet of early Paleogene paramyid rodents across the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) climatic event in an effort to understand the role of climate in mammalian dietary niche change. Dietary niches were quantified using three dental topographic measures: Dirichlet normal energy, relief index, and orientation patch count rotated. A Kruskal-Wallis test was conducted over eight time periods to determine if each of the dental topographic measures (i.e., diet) varied over time. Regression analysis of these measures with climatic …

An Assessment Of Periphyton Communities In Five Upper Peninsula Streams, Mi, Aaron Jeffrey Christiansen

Masters Theses

This project quantified lotic periphyton community change from May 2018-October 2018 in five, first and second-order Lake Superior tributary streams. Using periphyton communities, land use, geology, and abiotic factors pertinent to stream ecosystems we evaluated periphyton community succession. Using periphytometers, periphyton communities were collected and identified monthly to quantify community succession. Total phosphorus and total Kjeldahl nitrogen were measured monthly during the study. Depth, velocity, specific conductivity, and canopy cover were measured to quantify some of the physical factors within the streams. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis indicated that the periphyton communities were similar between streams (ADONIS p-value =0.73) but was …

Habitat Use And Tributary Occupancy Of The Threatened River Redhorse (Moxostoma Carinatum) In The Grand River, Mi, Usa., Nicholas Michael Preville

Masters Theses

The resiliency of our aquatic ecosystems hinges on our ability to protect the native species that reside within them. The river redhorse (Moxostoma carinatum) is one such example and populations have become low enough to warrant listing by the State of Michigan. Causes of decline include overfishing, habitat alteration, and lack of knowledge of basic life-history attributes including their use of non-spawning habitat and spawning locations. In order to understand the river redhorse’s habitat use we implanted 15 individuals with radio transmitters and tracked their locations over the course of a summer. Tagged river redhorse were found to …

Dynamic Carbon Cycling In Muskegon Lake – A Great Lakes Estuary, Katie Lynn Knapp

Masters Theses

Ecosystem metabolism is the coupling of carbon and oxygen through photosynthesis and respiration. Gross primary production (GPP) is the carbon fixation by photosynthesis, ecosystem respiration (R) is carbon remineralization by bacterial and plankton respiration, and net ecosystem production (NEP) is the balance. Metabolism estimates determine if ecosystem is a sink or source of carbon to the atmosphere. When a lake has a positive NEP, or the GPP:R ratio is greater than 1, it is considered autotrophic and less carbon is being lost to the atmosphere than taken in, whereas if NEP is negative (GPP:R-1d^-1, respectively and the BOD …

Using Landscape Genetics To Understand Connectivity Of An Island Population Of Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes (Sistrurus Catenatus), Nathan Kudla

Masters Theses

Populations that experience low levels of gene flow commonly display increased levels of inbreeding, lower genetic diversity, and reduced adaptive potential. Landscape genetics allows for spatial and genetic information to be analyzed simultaneously to better understand how the landscape influences gene flow. The eastern massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus) is a federally threatened viper found in wetlands throughout the Great Lakes region. Many remaining populations are small and isolated due primarily to habitat loss. Atypical from a range-wide perspective, eastern massasaugas on Bois Blanc Island (BBI), Michigan live in a relatively undisturbed landscape with a potential for high connectivity …

Evaluating Remote Site Incubators To Support Restoration Of Arctic Grayling In Michigan, Alan J. Mock

Masters Theses

Remote site incubators (RSIs) have been used to rear salmonid fish eggs along streams in the Pacific Northwest since the 1980s. Recently, the successful use of RSIs for Arctic Grayling Thymallus arcticus restoration in Montana has sparked a renewed interest to reestablish the species in Michigan. To support future reintroduction efforts of Arctic Grayling in Michigan, I evaluated RSIs in three Michigan streams during 2018 and 2019 using Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss eggs (as surrogates for Arctic Grayling). My objectives were to: (1) compare hatching success between two different RSI designs (19-L vs. 265-L RSIs), and (2) test whether the …

Methodological Advances For Understanding Social Connectivity And Environmental Implications In Multi-Use Landscapes, Matthew Clark

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Integrated social-ecological systems research is challenging; complicated feedback and interactions across scales in multi-use landscapes are difficult to decouple. Novel methods and innovative data sources are needed to advance social-ecological systems research. In this thesis, we use network science as a means of explicitly assessing feedback between social and ecological systems, and internet search data to better predict visitation in protected areas. This thesis seeks to provide empirical examples of emerging social-ecological systems science methods as a precedent for resource managers on-the-ground, as well as extending the line of scientific inquiry on the subject

In the first chapter of this …

Seed Predation By Owyhee Harvester Ants And The Potential Of Seed Introductions In Recovery Efforts For Slickspot Peppergrass, Jennifer A. Brown

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Slickspot peppergrass (Lepidium papilliferum) is a rare plant endemic to the sagebrush-steppe habitat in southwestern Idaho. Within sagebrush-steppe, the plant is restricted to microsites known as “slick spots”– shallow depressions of soil characterized by distinct clay layers and surface water retention that is higher than that of surrounding areas. Having one of the highest extirpation rates among rare plant taxa in Idaho, and considering its unique habitat requirements, limited range, and declining numbers, land managers and conservationists have voiced concern regarding the species’ long-term viability. While range-wide declines in slickspot peppergrass have been attributed largely to the loss …

Recreation, Fire And Disease Create A Mosaic Of Threats For Golden Eagles In Southwestern Idaho, Caitlin Marie Davis

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic stressors have resulted in ecosystem impoverishment and biodiversity loss worldwide. As the strength and reach of the human footprint increases, investigation of the additive or interactive effects of synergistic stressors on the landscape is imperative for conserving ecosystems and species within them. Apex predators can reflect how stressors impact ecosystems because of bottom-up effects. Golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) are apex predators of North American sagebrush-steppe ecosystems that are impacted by a suite of stressors, including wildfire, outdoor recreation disturbance, and habitat loss. We investigated whether multiple threats had additive or interactive effects on golden eagle occupancy, reproduction, …

The Value Of Inspection Stations For Detecting Nonindigenous Species Lacking Agricultural Significance: The Mexican Treefrog, Smilisca Baudinii Complex (Duméril And Bibron 1841) (Hylidae), Interdicted In Florida, Usa, From A Shipment Of Peppers, Louis A. Somma

Papers in Herpetology

A Mexican Treefrog, Smilisca baudinii, a nonindigenous species, was interdicted for the first time from an imported shipment of peppers. The value of agriculture inspection stations used to make these interdictions is discussed. This is a single cargo interception (Stage 1: Colautti and MacIsaac 2004) and the first record for S. baudinii intercepted in Florida. Currently no evidence suggests that S. baudinii has been successfully introduced into and established in Florida, although this species could survive climatic conditions in the southern part of the state and at the scheduled destination of this shipment.

Cargo transport of alien species is a …

Effects Of Light And Macroinvertebrate Consumers On Detrital Microbial Biofilms In Streams, Cheyenne M. Brady

Master's Theses

In lotic freshwater systems, aquatic macroinvertebrates are key processors of biofilms that grow upon organic matter. Although macroinvertebrate effects on biofilms may depend on light availability, the combined effects of consumers and light remain unexplored. Here, I conducted experiments to test effects of presence/absence of the omnivorous shrimp Macrobrachium ohione and the shredding caddisfly Pycnopsyche sp. on Liriodendron tulipifera litter biofilms in experimental streams under light or darkness. I measured litter-associated algal, fungal and bacterial biomasses and production rates, as well as litter decomposition, over 49 days. Both experiments exhibited significant positive effects of light on algal productivity and interactions …

The Ecology And Evolution Of The Freshwater Turtles Of Southern Mississippi, Gabrielle Berry

Master's Theses

Turtles are one of the most threatened group of animals in existence today. The Southeastern United States is one of two global biodiversity hotspots for turtle species, including the state of Mississippi, where over 30 species can be found. However, very few studies have occurred within the state. This lack of research is even more startling given the ongoing decline, or even extirpation, of numerous turtle species across the world, due to a number of factors, including habitat degradation, and harvest for food or the pet trade.

The overarching goal of this project was to perform a species inclusive freshwater …

Regional Variation In Grass, Sedge, And Cereal Cultivation During The Viking Age In Skagafjörður, North Iceland, Melissa M. Ritchey

Graduate Masters Theses

In Viking Age and Medieval Iceland, livestock forage was a critical resource in the Norse agropastoral economy. Cereal cultivation, typically an important part of the Norse economy, may have been more limited in marginal sub-Arctic Iceland. An analysis of macrobotanical seed assemblages from archaeological excavations at 42 Viking Age and Medieval farmsteads in the Skagafjörður region of North Iceland suggests both broad trends and substantial variation over time and space in agropastoral production practices. This study finds that the main components of livestock forage (grass, sedge, and perhaps cereal) are highly variable between regions and over time. Interestingly, barley (Hordeum …

Influence Of Varying Inorganic Nutrients Supply On Ergosterol And Glucosamine Concentrations And Biomass Nutrient Stoichiometry In Ectomycorrhizal Fungi, Stephanie S. Koury

Master's Theses

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are critical for the health of forest ecosystems where they can sequester large amounts of carbon in the form of soil organic matter, a matter of growing interest due to anthropogenic climate change. A clear understanding of their growth dynamics and responses to environmental changes is imperative for future work in forest management and the possible mitigation of increased atmospheric CO₂. Six ECM fungal species were grown in liquid culture under varying nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and ratios to assess how exogenous nutrient supplies affect fungal biomass stoichiometry and the degree of elemental homeostasis. Additional …

Rcrab: An R Analytics Tool To Visualize And Analyze The Movement Of Horseshoe Crabs In Long Island Sound, Ismael Youssef, Samah Senbel, Jo-Marie Kasinak, Jennifer Mattei

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

Mark-recapture programs are important for studying the ecology and population dynamics of wildlife. An R shiny analytics tool was developed to track the movement of horseshoe crabs in Long Island Sound based on tag and resight data. The crabs were tagged and recaptured by volunteers of Project Limulus, a community-based research program. The dataset contains tag and recapture location information for 14,065 horseshoe crabs over 18 years. The dataset was initially cleaned by removing records with missing, duplicate or incorrect data. A new data structure was developed to save the data and simplify processing: Three dimensions were used, one for …

Infestation Intensities, Attachment Patterns, And The Effect On Host Contest Behavior Of The Tick Ixodes Pacificus On The Lizard Sceloporus Occidentalis, Dylan M. Lanser

Master's Theses

Parasites often have profound effects on the survival and evolution of their hosts, and hence on the structure and health of entire ecosystems. Yet basic questions, such as the degree of virulence of a given parasite on its host, and factors influencing which hosts in a population are at the greatest risk of infection, are vexingly difficult to resolve. The western blacklegged tick-western fence lizard (Ixodes pacificus-Sceloporus occidentalis) system is important, primarily because I. pacificus, a vector of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, is dependent on S. occidentalis for blood meals in its subadult stages, …

Using Tree-Ring Growth And Stable Isotopes To Explore Ponderosa Pine Ecophysiological Responses To Climate Variability And The 2012-2015 California Drought, Rachel M. Keen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Climate warming in recent decades has resulted in more frequent and severe drought events in the western United States. These changes are projected to continue, making it exceedingly important to understand how forests respond to severe drought stress, and how we can manage these forests to reduce mortality during future events. The 2012-2015 California drought is a recent example of a severe, multi-year drought that was coupled with an epidemic-scale outbreak of western pine beetle, killing nearly 90% of ponderosa pines in the central and southern Sierra Nevadas. In the first portion of this study, we compared pairs of surviving …

Ecosystem Functioning Of Great Salt Lake Wetlands, Maya Cassidy Pendleton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Great Salt Lake (GSL) wetlands account for ~75% of all Utah wetlands and provide not only critical habitat for millions of migratory birds, but also provide valuable ecosystem functions and services as well as economic benefits to Utahns. However, these wetlands are facing an aggressive invader, Phragmites australis, that has spreading across the GSL wetlands and replacing native wetland habitats. Wetland managers have spent countless resources and time trying to control the spread of P. australis and restore GSL wetlands. However, we do not fully understand how these wetlands functions and services are being altered with this habitat …

Nest-Site Selection Of Golden Eagles And Ferruginous Hawks And Diet Composition Of Sensitive Raptor Species Using Metabarcoding Analysis In The Uinta Basin And Ashley National Forest, Ut, Usa, Dylan J. Hopkins

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Development and climate change in the sagebrush habitats are causing population declines of North American hawks and eagles. For these species, understanding the landscape features that are preferred for nesting and the prey they consume in sagebrush habitats are important in developing conservation plans. Specifically, we know little of the preferred nest-sites and diet of Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo regalis) and Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) many locales. In our study, we determined the landscape characteristics associated with nest sites for these two raptor species in the Uintah Basin, UT to predict where nests may occur in our …

The Vulnerability Of Littoral Structures Under Multiyear Drought Conditions, Jenna M. Keeton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Climate change is associated with altered environmental conditions and shifting mosaics of suitable habitats for organisms. Climate change in the form of drought can shift important lake shoreline habitats downslope, altering the lakes chemistry and habitat availability. Additionally, negative biological consequences can occur after a loss of submerged habitat along shorelines, hereafter littoral habitat. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether littoral habitat is lost (cobble, coarse woody habitat (fallen trees; CWH), and aquatic vegetation) under drought conditions across the United States. I used the National Lakes Assessment physical habitat data collected in summer 2012, when 75% of …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Livestock Guardian Dogs: Loss-Prevention, Behavior, Space-Use, And Human Dimensions, Daniel Kinka

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Livestock guardian dogs – or “LGDs” – are commonly used by domestic sheep ranchers and reduce the need for killing wild carnivores to protect livestock. LGDs are mostly used in the United States to reduce the number of livestock killed by coyotes, but whether they can prevent killing by larger carnivores like wolves and grizzly bears is unclear. It is important to identify which behavioral traits and LGD breeds work best for guarding livestock so that ranchers can protect their stock and environmentalists can enjoy a greater number of wild animals on the landscape. This study investigated the effectiveness of …

Visual Opsin Diversity In Anurans, Leah Perez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among major vertebrate groups, anurans are understudied with regards to their visual systems and how they function. This study sampled North American anurans representing diverse evolutionary and life histories and which likely possess visual systems adapted to meet different ecological needs. Using standard molecular techniques, sequences were obtained for four opsins—the protein component of visual pigments—expressed in anuran retinas. Amino acid sequences of the genes RH1, LWS, SWS1, and SWS2 were compared across taxa to identify variable sites, as such variation can shift the spectral sensitivity of visual pigments and thus alter dim-light and color vision. Some of the amino …

Plasticity In The Human Gut Microbiome Defies Evolutionary Constraints, Andres Gomez, Ashok Kumar Sharma, Elizabeth K. Mallott, Klara J. Petrzelkova, Carolyn A. Jost Robinson, Carl J. Yeoman, Franck Carbonero, Barbora Pafco, Jessica M. Rothman, Alexander Ulanov, Klara Vickova, Katherine R. Amato, Stephanie L. Schnorr, Nathaniel J. Dominy, David Modry, Angelique Todd, Manolito Torralba, Karen E. Nelson, Michael B. Burns, Ran Blekhman, Melissa Remis, Rebecca M. Stumpf, Brenda A. Wilson, H. Rex Gaskins, Paul A. Garber, Bryan A. White, Steven R. Leigh

Anthropology Faculty Research

The gut microbiome of primates, including humans, is reported to closely follow host evolutionary history, with gut microbiome composition being specific to the genetic background of its primate host. However, the comparative models used to date have mainly included a limited set of closely related primates. To further understand the forces that shape the primate gut microbiome, with reference to human populations, we expanded the comparative analysis of variation among gut microbiome compositions and their primate hosts, including 9 different primate species and 4 human groups characterized by a diverse set of subsistence patterns (n = 448 samples). The results …

Validation Of A Death Assay For Angiostrongylus Cantonensis Larvae (L3) Using Propidium Iodide In A Rat Model (Rattus Norvegicus), Susan I. Jarvi, John Jacob, Robert T. Sugihara, Israel L. Leinbach, Ina H. Klasner, Lisa M. Kaluna, Kirsten A. Snook, M. Kathleen Howe, Steven H. Jacquier, Ingo Lange, Abigail L. Atkinson, Ashley R. Deane, Chris N. Niebuhr, Shane R. Siers

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Angiostrongylus cantonensis is a pathogenic nematode and the cause of neuroangiostrongyliasis, an eosinophilic meningitis more commonly known as rat lungworm disease. Transmission is thought to be primarily due to ingestion of infective third stage larvae (L3) in gastropods, on produce, or in contaminated water. The gold standard to determine the effects of physical and chemical treatments on the infectivity of A. cantonensis L3 larvae is to infect rodents with treated L3 larvae and monitor for infection, but animal studies are laborious and expensive and also raise ethical concerns. This study demonstrates propidium iodide (PI) to be a reliable marker of …

Reduced Alphabet Of Prebiotic Amino Acids Optimally Encodes The Conformational Space Of Diverse Extant Protein Folds, Armando D. Solis

Publications and Research

Background

There is wide agreement that only a subset of the twenty standard amino acids existed prebiotically in sufficient concentrations to form functional polypeptides. We ask how this subset, postulated as {A,D,E,G,I,L,P,S,T,V}, could have formed structures stable enough to found metabolic pathways. Inspired by alphabet reduction experiments, we undertook a computational analysis to measure the structural coding behavior of sequences simplified by reduced alphabets. We sought to discern characteristics of the prebiotic set that would endow it with unique properties relevant to structure, stability, and folding.

Results

Drawing on a large dataset of single-domain proteins, we employed an information-theoretic measure …